OCTOBER 71 



street. The sun was always in one's eyes in the middle 

 of the day, and behind the hills morning and evening; 

 and the fogs hung about the river as they do between 

 the houses in the street. How entirely the Rhine of 

 Turner and Byron has ceased to be ! All the beautiful, 

 picturesque boats, barges, rafts, etc., with white or tan 

 sails, that trailed their long reflections in the broad 

 river, representing the commercial industries of the 

 people, which had been growing from the commence- 

 ment of history — all this has completely disappeared. 

 On the main, I saw one or two of the old-fashioned large 

 rafts, not towed by steamers, but punted by the graceful 

 little black figures, ceaselessly labouring up and down 

 a small portion of the raft and pushing it with long 

 poles. On the Rhine, everything was towed by steamers 

 of various sizes and kinds. As I sped along in the 

 luxurious railway carriage, and noticed the road beside 

 the river turning and twisting along the bank, I could 

 not but think of the changes since the days when all 

 travelling was done by carriages and lumbering dili- 

 gences. In Moore's 'Life of Byron,' which I used to 

 think such a delightful book, but which now is some- 

 what sneered at as unfair book -making by Byron 

 biographers, there is a detailed account of the way the 

 rich and great journeyed at the beginning of the cen- 

 tury : ' Lord Byron travelled in a huge coach copied 

 from the celebrated one of Napoleon, taken at Genappe, 

 with additions. Besides a lit de repos, it contained a 

 library, a plate chest, and every apparatus for dining in 

 it. It was not, however, found sufficiently capacious for 

 his baggage and suite, and he purchased a caliche at 

 Brussels for his servants.' So travelled the man whom 

 Lady Caroline Lamb attempts to describe, in her famous 

 though dull novel of 'Glenavon,' with the motto: 



He left a name to all succeeding times 

 Link'd with one virtue and a thousand crimes. 



